


Sousuke's Favourite Entertainment

by phantomatsuoka (PhantomMatsuoka)



Category: Free!
Genre: Brief mentions of other charas, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Free! ES timeline, Humor, M/M, attempts at flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-31 05:30:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19419436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantomMatsuoka/pseuds/phantomatsuoka
Summary: Sousuke's either reading, swimming, or perhaps spending his free time hitting Samezuka's exclusive gym; but nothing, ever, entertains him best like watching Nanase struggle to flirt with Rin, and the confusion and skeptic look that crosses his dense bestfriend's face every time.





	Sousuke's Favourite Entertainment

**Author's Note:**

> Totally unrelated but I wanted to post my first Free! fic during Haru's birthday! So, Happy Birthday, Haru-chan!

The first time he noticed that perhaps Nanase was far too gone to remove himself out of Rin's way, was when he appeared hilariously antsy one afternoon.

It was another typical Iwatobi-Samezuka joint-practice, Rin relaying the training regimen (torture method, as some might have mumbled under their breaths) he drafted for the team; Tachibana doing the same with their pity party of four, and judging by the grimace that crossed his face for a moment, Sousuke entertained the idea that perhaps another Matsuoka was to be held responsible for that as well.

All is well for the next few hours; the sound of whistles, splashes, and the occasional snap of Rin's goggle elastic, along with the low buzz of murmured conversations filled the natatorium. The Iwatobi lads had no problem interacting and blending in with everyone, and Sousuke himself was even roped in on the mandatory small talk by the perfect angel that was their green-eyed captain. Moments later, Ryuugazaki asked him for a couple of pointers in which he could improve his form and Sousuke might have spent a good portion of an hour doing just so.

It was when Rin had officially dismissed everyone, but gave his permission for anybody else who might have wanted to stay, that Sousuke noticed that Nanase wasn't tripping over back to the pool just as he expected of him.

He was conversing with their team's backstroke swimmer in hushed tones, eyes reluctantly trailing over Rin as the redhead leisurely did laps across the pool. Curiousity got the best of him when he decided that his shower could wait, in way of figuring out what Nanase was up to. 

Said boy, then took a stand by the starting block of the lane in which Rin occupied, occasionally glancing towards his green-eyed bestfriend who smiled and nodded reassuringly at him from the sidelines. His face donned its usual (irritating) blank stare, but the way he clenched and unclenched his palms made it appear as though he was on edge.

Sousuke raised a brow at the way Nanase's scrawny shoulders tensed once Rin noticed his hovering, hearing that nonchalant voice echo onto the silence around them as almost every one had filtered out and into the locker rooms, by then.

"Done swimming?" He asked the Samezuka team captain.

"No," was Rin's abrupt answer. "Why are you just standing there? Didn't you hear how I said you could swim more if you want to?"

The brief panic that flashed across Nanase's face as he apparently hadn't anticipated the question was enough to make Sousuke grin, then the shorter male turned to Makoto once more, who nodded his head and gave him an encouraging look.

"I'm waiting for you to be done swimming." Nanase finally replied, so quietly that Sousuke needed to strain his ear just to hear it.

"And why is that?" Rin, still skeptical, countered.

"Because," The raven-haired teen paused. "I want to help you out of the pool."

Sousuke watched his bestfriend's face morph into one that he normally only sees whilst Rin is working on a highly complicated mathematical equation, or a particularly challenging brain teaser.

"You're not making any sense."

Nanase mumbled an irate "tch" under his breath at that, his form getting tenser as Sousuke's amusement and curiousity rose.

"Just let me pull you out once you're done." 

"Like how Makoto does with you?" Rin let out a small snort. "With the way you only ever eat mackerel and the lack of weight training, I doubt that you can support my weight, Haru."

Nanase's face crumpled with indignation but before he could even open his mouth to retaliate, their olive-haired friend was cutting the tension for them.

"Give him a chance, Rin. He's... working on something here." He said, in that soft, motherly tone. Nanase shot him a grateful glance as Rin sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Fine." The redhead replied. "I'm done. Pull me out."

Nanase's adam's apple bobbed as he gulped, stretching to offer a palm and bracing his feet to the concrete below.

Rin reached out for it with an unreadable expression, but once he had a firm enough grasp against Nanase's hand, the corners of his lips lifted to a devious smirk as he used his weight to pull the water-freak back to the chlorinated pool.

"Told you you can't pull me up." Flashing his sharp-toothed grin, Rin said as the other had resurfaced.

"You cheated." Nanase gritted, wiping water out of his face.

"Yeah, well, I was getting tired of you being weirder than you normally are, so how about you just race me instead?" Rin pulled himself up and donned his goggles back in place. "Loser has to pull the other up from the pool." He added with a smirk that made Nanase avert his eyes but eventually claimed the starting block next to Rin.

Once the pair lost themselves to their own competitive bubble, like the usual, Sousuke finally left his place against the entrance and walked back to Makoto, who wore his usual fond smile as he eyed the childish duo.

"What was that about?" Sousuke asked, left with more questions than answers from the whole ordeal.

The Iwatobi captain shrugged. "Like I said, Haru-chan's working on something he's been building up courage to do."

"Like what? Pulling Rin out of the pool?"

A melodic laugh came as a reply. "Something like that. It didn't end how he expected it to, but that's fairly the usual thing that happens when it involves him and Rin."

He was about to enquire further on that very vague reply but lost his words when the other looked up and gave him a gentle smile.

"Do you need help getting back to your dorm, Sousuke-kun? Rin told us you're a bit directionally-challenged."

Sousuke should've taken offence, and he knew that the answer was no; but still couldn't help saying yes...

***

The next time something weird happened, was three days after the initial incident.

Sousuke found himself roped into a group study session at some newly discovered park, just on the quiet side of Tottori; the whole Iwatobi swim team was present, along with Samezuka's relay team.

"To strengthen bonds despite being competitors!" The cheerful blond— Hazuki, he recalled— explained.

When lunch time rolled in, it was revealed that most of them had brought their own bentou. Almost all except Rin, Ai, and Momo.

"Oi, why didn't you guys told us you'll be bringing your own lunch?" Whined his bestfriend.

"Sou-chan seems to have gotten the memo." Hazuki jovially pointed at him with his chopsticks, hearing Makoto choke on his tumbler full of iced tea.

"Tch," Rin surprisingly ignored the blatant opportunity to tease him. "You guys wait here, we'll run by the nearest conbini to grab some oni—"

"Rin," Nanase suddenly spoke up. "You can have some of mine. I accidentally made a bigger portion for one." 

Despite his deadpan expression, something about the anticipation in his tone told Sousuke that having leftovers wasn't exactly the reason why he was voluteering to share his lunch.

"And what? Eat mackerel with pineapples again?" Rin huffed playfully before standing up, beckoning Ai and Momo up. "Hate to break it to you, Haru, but I think I'll just stick to premade onigiri."

"But—"

"I'm sure Nagisa will gladly help you finish it up." Rin chuckled and turned his back before Nanase was able to retort back.

Sousuke ignored what happened next in order to trail his attention back to his own bentou. It wasn't until Gou shrieked a minute later that his eyes found their way up again.

"Woah, Haruka-senpai! Is that what I think it is? Tonkatsu? You brought meat instead of the usual mackerel?"

True to his friend's claim, Nanase's bentou indeed include a generous heap of deep fried meaty goodness instead of his preferred fish. And it was a lot too, perhaps enough to feed two people.

"You guys can have it." Nanase pushed the bentou away from his person. "I ate mackerel and rice before I left the house."

Hazuki cheered and Sousuke himself can't help but try a piece, mentally agreeing with Makoto as he recalled the brunette mentioning how good of a cook his bestfriend was.

Despite the compliments that every one showered Nanase's cooking, he looked as if he didn't want to hear any of them, or at least, he didn't want to hear it _from_ them.

Something clicked in his head as he watched Makoto subtly pat the water-freak's back, as though wordlessly comforting him with a sympathetic smile.

As Sousuke gave in and sneaked another piece of katsu for himself, he realized three things.

One, was that his bestfriend's a dense idiot.

Two, was that Rin just missed the opportunity to taste the best tonkatsu that he could ever eat in his entire life.

And three, was that he was starting to find great amusement watching Nanase struggle (and fail) to make his feelings for Rin known.

***

Some attempts end up good enough to be considered a success, whilst most of the time, it either ends with Rin scandalized and flustered to the tips of his ears, or earning that calculating, dubious look that you could actually hear the gears in his friend's head turn.

Sousuke found himself rating each attempt from 1 as the absolute worst, to 5 being the best; and so far, the highest Nanase ever got was a shameful 3.

His personal favourite was still attempt #6, or that bit when Nanase offered to shave Rin's legs when the redhead complained about the need to as regionals approached. That earned him a smack on the back of the head by a very red Rin, as Sousuke tried his best not to guffaw from across the table.

Simple moves include the random gifts that had Rin asking if it's the 2nd of February already, the old clichè tucking of Rin's hair behind his ear (which made Rin jump almost through the roof of the natatorium), calling him pretty (which Rin apparently not hated, despite his ardent claims), to the weird ones such as that one time Nanase appeared unannounced in their dorm room to do Rin's laundry and almost gave Sousuke a heart attack (how he was given permission to the dormitories, Sousuke had no idea).

Despite the different rankings and epic fail endings to each and every one of Nanase's flirting attempts, one thing they all have in common was that all of them failed to get the message through his idiot bestfriend's thick skull. Rin even had the audacity to ask if Nanase was pulling a prank on him on one occasion.

Yet, regardless of the many fruitless attempts, Nanase never cried uncle as he continued on with his endevour, each of which differed from the ones before.

Which is why, it was to Sousuke's great confusion, when Rin trotted to him one day, wearing a mixture of anxiousness and hesitation on his face.

"Sousuke?"

"Hmm?"

Rin paused, rubbing the back of his neck. A habit formed from nervousness. "You... hang around a lot with Makoto these days, yeah?"

He had been expecting that question a lot sooner, honestly, as he'd never really tried hiding that fact in the first place. But the pitiful expression on Rin's face was far from what he expected once the topic was brought out.

"Yeah, why?"

"I uh," Rin paused. "Did he happen to mention anything about Haru?"

He rose a brow at this. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not sure. Just... anything about me, I guess? Is Haru mad at me? Did I do something wrong during one of our practices?"

"Where's all this coming from, Rin? And why can't you ask Makoto yourself?"

"Who said I haven't already done that?" Rin snapped, eyes narrowing into ruby embers but soften just as quickly. "Sorry, fuck. I didn't mean... just— I shouldn't have shouted."

He heard himself sigh before gripping one of Rin's shoulders. "Tell me what's up with Nanase this time."

Rin's eyes shot up to meet his, and Sousuke's stomach dropped at the pained and panicked look that rattled them. "He's avoiding me."

Sousuke frowned at this, because Nanase avoiding Rin? The same Nanase Haruka who looks at his bestfriend with sparkly eyes like Rin's the human equivalent of the Niagara Falls?

"You sure?" He can't help but confirm.

"Well how else can I possibly interpret how he acts around me during recent joint-practices? He barely looks at me. I mean I get that he's usually not one for words but..." Rin's gaze rolled downwards. "...lately he's been different. He's giving me these weird compliments and doing weird shit around me. He's actually replying to my texts albeit monosyllabic, and he's just... more active... like he actually wants to spend time with me, and I thought maybe... maybe he..."

He watched as his bestfriend's cheeks flared, watched him choke on his next words like he's never considered them until now.

"Maybe what? That maybe he likes you?" Sousuke helpfully supplied, internally noting that Rin wasn't as dense as he thought.

"That's— I mean— ...just maybe—"

"You'll never know the answer to that from Makoto or myself, Rin." Said Sousuke, effectively cutting Rin's stammers. "Best to ask Nanase, himself."

Sousuke sighed and sat top Rin's bed, energy slightly drained from having to deal with Nanase's lack of balls to just man up and confess.

"If you feel like you could be more with Nanase than friends and rivals, then you've got nothing to lose and more to gain." 

And that's about the extent of help he'll ever do for Nanase, like damn Sousuke's going to do his work for him...

***

A few days later, after numerous occasions of pacing their dorm room in the middle of the night or muffling a groan on his pillow, Rin told him he'll be off to somewhere on a "personal agenda".

He refused to state the whereabouts of this agenda, but Sousuke wasn't born yesterday for him not to know.

"Tell Makoto I said 'Hi' if you ran into him." He called once Rin was almost out the door, chuckling at how he halted his steps and tensed his shoulders visibly, flushed to the tip of his ears as he flipped Sousuke off.

He must have dozed off after that as he was woken off by the rapid succession of buzzing from his phone. A series of text messages came flooding in, one after the other, as Sousuke rubbed the sleep from his eyes and started from the oldest one.

They were all from Rin...

_**20:53** Sousuke _

_**20:53** What the actual fuck!?_

_**20:54** I kissed Haru_

_**20:54** And he fucking kissed me back!?_

He was still staring at the screen when a new batch of messages came.

_**20:57** He's going on about having to thank Rei for suggesting about 'making Rin-san yearn for Haruka-senpai instead'_

_**20:58** The fuck was that about?! Was this what you meant by I had nothing to lose and more to gain?_

_**21:03** He's still kissing me..._

_**21:03** But shit, I want answers first! Why were you so sure that Haru's not going to reject me? What else do you know, Sousuke??_

Sousuke wished he could send his eye-roll and exasperated sigh as a reply, but settled with words instead.

_**21:04 [Sent]** That's because you're stupid, Rin. I wouldn't have needed to tell you what to do if you weren't so clueless_

_**21:04** What do you mean by that, asshole?_

_**21:05 [Sent]** Try asking any of your old friends or your sister_

There wasn't any responses for a few minutes and Sousuke closed his eyes again just to bask in the temporary peace.

_**21:17** I told Gou, she rang me up immediately and started screaming about winning a bet with Nagisa about me kissing Haru first._

_**21:17** What the hell? Am I the last to know?!_

Sousuke allowed himself a chuckle as he imagined Rin right at the moment.

_**21:19 [Sent]** Glad Gou didn't inherit the dumb genes. You sure you weren't adopted?_

Sousuke dropped his phone after that, certain that a series of curses and nasty name-calling will follow forth.

He knew that he meant it when he threatened Nanase about holding Rin back, but somehow, he was starting to see how they consciously (and unconsciously) magnitize towards one another no matter what. Rin needs Nanase ahead of him to be able to move forward, but Nanase wouldn't be moving at all if it weren't for Rin's stubborn urgings. If Nanase ever stopped, decided that standing still, going nowhere but at his own pace was the best option for him, it wouldn't be a surprise if that turned out to be a massive hindrance for Rin to continue forward as well.

Looking back at it now—the words he snarled at Nanase's face— perhaps it was impossible. Maybe it was just out of the question for Nanase to be out of Rin's way, when it retrospect, Rin himself was expecting Nanase to show him the way.

He sighed to himself, denying the fact that the frantic messages caused a tiny spark of joy in him for his bestfriend. Instead, he chose to dwell on the loss of possibly his best source of entertainment nowadays. 

Damn, he was going to miss watching Nanase make an absolute fool out of himself, but at least he managed to finally earn a 5, despite the idea not being his own.

Just as he was about to consider taking a late jog instead, his phone vibrated again, but the message wasn't from Rin this time.

_**21:27** Sousuke-kun, Haru called me to ask you to stop talking to Rin? I think he's trying to reap the fruits of his labour right now, so he's asking all of us not to reply to Rin's texts and calls anymore._

He grinned upon reading Makoto's name. 

_**21:28 [Sent]** Ah, but what am I to do to kill time now?_

_**21:28 [Sent]** Unless you'd join me for dinner, instead..._

He considered adding a wink emoji but decided to omit it at the last minute, clutching his phone tightly to his chest as he waited for Iwatobi's swim captain to reply.

_**21:31** I'll take responsibility and meet you at the station, then. :)_

Looks like he wouldn't be worrying about getting bored for the night, at least...

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love it if you guys tell me your thoughts about this, as this is the first ever fic I've written for the Free!dom. RinHaruRin owns my heart and soul as of lately and I really want to write and improve more for this pair. Thank you lot for reading!


End file.
